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Cairo's Zaballeen—Arabic for "garbage people"—recycle nearly all the trash they collect, maintaining what could be the world's most efficient waste disposal system. Foreign competition is threatening this community of ecologically minded trash entrepreneurs, which has a lot it could teach the rest of the world about waste management.

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Segment 1

TITLE

Cairo

ADHAM [Garbage collector]

If there weren't any garbage collectors, Cairo wouldn't be clean. I once went into Cairo to collect trash. I realized everyone was well dressed, but I wasn't. So, I was a bit upset. But I must live with this. It's my fate.

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Garbage Dreams

ADHAM

Everyday, we pick up trash from residents. Then, we bring it to our neighborhood.

SINGING

We are the garbage collectors. Always blessed. We are the garbage collectors, the Zaballeen, the Zaballeen.

LAILA [Community Social Worker]

Everyone here works in garbage.

VOICE

We recycle everything.

ADHAM

Here, we recycle 80 percent of what we collect. But abroad, they only recycle 30 percent and bury the rest in landfills. Companies began coming in from abroad.

LAILA

The city contracted with foreign waste disposal companies because they perceive the Zaballeen to be old-fashioned.

ADHAM

Of course, I'm furious. They will bury all our garbage.

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The Recycling School

LAILA

This school teaches new ways of thinking so our kids can fight for a better future.

ADHAM

I think if I became educated, I could develop the whole trade. My school wants to send me abroad to see how foreign societies work.

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Wales

ADHAM

I finally get to see the world.

ADHAM [to recycling plant worker]

But this can be recycled. It doesn't matter if it's big or small. This should be recycled! So, this is the end of it!

WOMAN

This is going to go a landfill. This is going to go to a hole in the earth.